Research On Non-compete Regulation From The Perspective Of Trade Secret Protection

In the context of the knowledge economy and the era of big data,the key to the development of enterprises lies in the trade secrets they hold and the competitive advantage they form by relying on trade secrets.The protection of trade secrets and other intellectual property information is an important measure to ensure the orderly development of the national economy.China’s current measures to protect trade secrets are divided into two main types,namely trade secret confidentiality agreements and non-compete agreements.The non-compete agreement,as a precautionary measure to protect trade secrets,to a certain extent effectively protects the enterprise from infringement of trade secrets.However,in recent years,with the non-compete agreement gradually into the public eye,some enterprises based on the establishment of the labour contract relationship,requiring workers to sign a non-compete agreement,regardless of whether these enterprises have trade secrets,whether the worker access or master trade secrets.In this way,the non-competition agreement has become a tool to tie the workers’ free choice of employment,which is not conducive to the normal flow of talents in the market economy,and once the workers leave,the meagre financial compensation will make the workers’ life in distress.Therefore,this paper intends to analyze the legislative and judicial issues in the operation of the non-competition system in the protection of trade secrets from the relevant cases of judicial practice,and put forward relevant suggestions for improvement.The first part of the paper takes 100 adjudication documents as the starting point,and analyzes and discusses the cases in the form of charts and graphs;the second part takes the analysis results of 100 adjudication documents as the guide,summarizes the current situation of the operation of the non-competition system in the protection of trade secrets,and then analyzes the existence of a generalization of the application of the main body of the non-competition obligation in the operation of the system,some workers assume the non-competition obligation The third part introduces the non-competition system in the United States and Germany,with a view to providing a more comprehensive analysis of the legal framework for the protection of trade secrets.The fourth part is to propose suggestions for improving the non-competition system in the protection of trade secrets in China,in response to the problems raised in the second part,drawing on the relevant legislation and adjudication experience in foreign countries,and based on improving the relevant legal system,to clarify from the legislative level that the subject of the non-competition obligation is the worker who knows the trade secrets,and to clarify The legal basis of the non-competition system is to ensure that the non-competition system effectively protects trade secrets while promoting the exchange of talents and the continuous innovation of trade secrets through the exchange of talents,so as to lay the institutional foundation for China to adapt to the era of knowledge economy.